Blind
by MiddleoftheOcean
Summary: Oliver finds Tess in Geneva. Set between Season 8's Power and Requiem.


Blind

 _"I can tell you're not alright, you just put salt in your coffee."_ Oliver finds Tess in Geneva.

Set between Season 8's Power and Requiem.

I don't own Smallville

Oliver Queen hated Lex Luthor. With all his guts he hated him. Lana had told them all what Lex had done to Tess, and the red head had been missing for a few days now. Oliver found it odd, she'd launched herself back into his life and now, like so many years ago, there was a Tess-sized-hole in it again. He'd called Luthorcorp, the Daily Planet and the mansion, only to receive the same answer – she was unavailable. He tried her email, both mobile phones, but only got an out of office and voicemail.

After all the years that they had been apart, he was worried for her. She wouldn't do anything stupid, he told himself. Not Tess. She wasn't that fragile.

But from what Lana had said, maybe she wasn't as bulletproof as they had all thought.

In the end he got Chloe to work her hacker magic and print him out a travel itinerary from Tess' inbox, and he had the Queen jet ready to go shortly after, a direct flight to Geneva.

Oliver checked the Hotel address against the one in the itinerary before walking through the revolving doors and joining the queue for the concierge desk.

"Hi, can you tell me Tess Mercer's room number, please? I'm her husband." He lied to clarify the receptionist's unspoken question, and flashed her one of his dashing smiles.

"Seven Hundred and Two." She replied, eyes a little unfocused.

He took the elevator to the seventieth floor and stopped outside her door, staring at the brass numbers before knocking.

He couldn't hear anything from within the room, but then the door suddenly opened. Tess, her hair in a messy bun, wearing loose jeans and a long grey cardigan wrapped up in the arms that hugged herself around her waist. It was a moment of staring into his face before she displayed an expression of shock. Her beautiful face resembled half a panda, her left eye ringed with black, looking bloodshot and unfocused.

"What the hell happened to you?" – "What the hell are you doing here?" they spoke in unison. Tess hugged herself tighter. "I can't talk to you right now. I wouldn't have answered the door except I can't see very well and I thought you were room service." She said, running a distracted hand over her hair.

"Tess, let me in." he said.

"Leave me alone, Oliver." She said, closing the door. He slammed his weight onto it, preventing it from shutting. She was stepping back already as he closed the door behind him as he stepped into the room.

"Lana told us what Lex did to you, Tess." He said to her back as she walked away from him, further into her hotel room. Her suitcase was open at the foot of the bed, contents in a mess. She flicked on the kettle and got out a mug from a small kitchenette hidden in a cupboard.

She made a sound of annoyance in her throat, "Lana doesn't know the meaning of 'in confidence'."

He sat down on the edge of the bed. "It was horrible, and wrong and twisted. I'm… sorry."

"I don't need your pity." She scoffed, "I need you to get out of my room. Go back to Metropolis, Oliver. I made a huge mistake trusting Lex, and now I've had a camera sliced out of my head to prove what an idiot I am."

"What did the doctor say? What's the recovery time on an operation like this? You should be in bed."

"That's the only place you want me," she sighed with irritation.

"Resting! Can you even see?" He shot back.

"Oliver, I'm alright."

"I can tell you're not alright, you just put salt in your coffee."

Tess looked down at the empty twists of paper wrappers she held in her hands. Beneath the blur she could see 'Salt' printed in blue block letters. "Oh." She gave a breath of laughter before her shoulders started to shake with tears and rage. "He fucked me up!" she said to her hands, "I sold my soul for him and he took everything from me!" she hurled the mug into the wall where it shattered and fell to the carpet with a muffled crash. Oliver was at her side in two steps, pulling her into his chest as she howled into him.

"Cry it out, Tess." He soothed, kissing the top of her head, stroking her back, letting her cry until she had nothing left.

"He ruined me." She whimpered, before cascading into a fresh wave of tears. "After everything I did. I loved him, Oliver."

He felt a flare of primal jealousy, rage and possession sweep through him, but he clamped a lid on his beating heart and held her tightly.

"Not like I loved you," she cried, "but I would have died for him. I would have done anything if he asked it. But this… he put a camera in me! He's seen everything!" her anxiety spiked as her mind flicked through all the potential things he could have seen – her lovers, her body, passwords, secrets, love letters, tears, people watching in cafes, sea diving, every word she'd spoken, sleeping – were her dreams and fantasies still immune… she reeled, feeling like she might be sick and started crying again, hands screwing Oliver's shirt sleeves into crumples. She wanted to step out of her very skin, and walk away, sparkly and new and undamaged by Lex.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He repeated.

"I was so blind." She said angrily, "I was so stupid."

"You were young and you were lied to." He countered.

She shook her head against his chest. "No, no it's like Groundhog Day with me and my awful choice in men."

He looked down at her, "present company excluded, right?"

Tess took a step back, wiping her face with her hands. "My head hurts, Oliver." She said.

"Come here." He steered her gently to the bed. Sitting her down on the edge.

"I knew you only wanted me here," she teased lightly.

He pushed her back, pulled the covers over her. "We're adults now, Tess; I think we can be in the same room without killing or ripping each other's clothes off."

She closed her eyes, not feeling at all like an adult, wanting to swim into the blackness of the sheets and be a warm little ball of oblivion. He gazed at her tear stained and bruised face, wondering where that brilliant girl from the island was. "I don't think I can. We can. Every time I think I've reached the turning point in my life, I realise I haven't grown up at all. I'm just a scared and stupid little girl." He smoothed her hair, letting her vent, "And a part of me doesn't want to grow up. Because then I'd lose that relationship with you. I spent so much time running away, only to want nothing more than to be with you." She hiccoughed slightly, "I'm sorry. This is really unattractive please forget everything I said. Everything in my life is as blurry as my vision right now."

"It'll come back to you." He said, standing. She caught his hand with hers, her grip tight.

"No. Don't go. Just… lie beside me?" she asked.

He nodded to her closed eyes and kicked off his shoes and his jacket, crawling over her legs to lie beside her, skin almost touching.

"You said you loved me this time." He said to disperse the silence falling. "What that a past tense, I loved you once, or a… you know?"

She opened her eyes, turning to look at him. She brushed her fingers along his jaw. "Why did you come after me?"

"You keep answering questions with questions." He reciprocated her movements, playing with the wisps of hair along her temple. "But I'll answer you. I hadn't heard from you in days and I worried that you would do something rash and stupid, that you would hurt yourself because of this."

She shook her head, "No. I can't get revenge if I'm dead. I made the trip so that yesterday I could sell a ton of Luthorcorp shares to Lex's hated rival companies and get this," she gestured to her eye, "sorted out."

"That's why you sold me Luthorcorp?" he said with surprise. "And I thought you just wanted to spend more time with me…"

She playfully hit his shoulder. It hurt.

His Mercy was still alive and kicking.

"I want to kiss you." He said quietly.

Tess took a breath, her tongue flicked over her lower lip for a second. "I wouldn't stop you, if you did."

He shifted closer to her, feeling the heat radiating off her, the little bundle of raw nerves and anger and hurt that she was, beautiful and tragic in her glittering brokenness, ghosting his mouth over hers before kissing her.

She sighed when he pulled back, curling her hand in his short hair and kissing him again. "I need to feel… something other than this pain." She said, her mouth catching on his. He kissed her deeply, desperately, pulling her head off the pillow as his hand tangled in her hair. She was smiling slightly when he broke the kiss. "Something like that."

He wrapped her up in his arms, "You need to sleep, Mercy." He whispered, catching the hand that toyed with his shirt button. She looked at him, exhausted, exasperated. He watched her shift her shoulders on the bed, closing her eyes.

"Why do we keep hurting each other, Oliver?"

He shook his head, "I'm not going to hurt you anymore."

"You'll stay with me?" she asked after a long silence, her hand dropping to curl on the mattress between them. He laced their fingers.

"Absolutely."

"Good." She said and rested her forehead on his chest.


End file.
